Why Is Lady Gaga a Thing?

Songs are an old medium. For thousands of years man has used songs to express the multitude of feelings that a person could be feeling. According to the Library of Congress the first step when analyzing a song or poem is to understand the background. You need to understand where the person is coming from. This is similar in art for instance, when Francisco Goya started painting the dark, horrifying paintings we remember he was being influenced by his depression and the horrible French and Spanish war around him. There is a direct correlation between environment and the material the artist produced. I find this fascinating. This led me to ask questions about popular music. Why is my generation’s music the way it is?

According to Billboard albums sales have dropped significantly. The reason for this is thought to be the new influx of technology that allows you to download music with a click of a button and a lot of the time for free, illegally of course. This has given rise to the single and the importance of getting noticed. People have an almost unlimited supply of music because of the internet. This gives people a way to get themselves out like never before. Why then does the radio only seem to play about five songs on rotation? I believe this is because songs have to be recognizable now. Artists have to result to sensational songs such as “I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry. This obviously is not a very artistic song but, it is catchy and people will remember it. Because there is this huge pool of songs to choose from only the ridiculous and the super talented get noticed. They rely on targeting the young and frankly, silly people to get them popular. That is why Lady Gaga and all of the loonies dress the way they dress, to get noticed.

Because these songs are what is demanded that is why they are played over and over and over again. The song may even be good but because it is on all the damn time I end up despising it. Honestly it is one of the worst things anyone can experience when a song gets stuck in your head and that is probably the goal of eighty percent of the artists now-a-days.

I have always hated radio because of this. Unfortunately we are going to be remembered for Miley Cyrus, and I may never come to terms with that. It is a direct response to the environment, especially during the Internet Age, that this is the case. It appears as if that we as a generation are mindless zombies. Fortunately though because of the Internet, I will never have to listen to the radio ever again.

   Sweaty hands. Eyes wide open. Breath held. This is a lot of people’s college experience including mine. The college process today is like a bloodless hunger games in which the applicants fight for acceptance into a “cornucopia” of knowledge and prestige that is required to succeed in today’s marketplace. I always have been very competitive and, unlike school, this competition is really motivating and invigorating. It, for whatever reason, is a lot easier for me to be motivated by this than it is by school. This is probably why I have had the Eminem song Survival stuck in my head during my past trip to Oregon to visit colleges.
 
   In the song it talks about that the rap industry is “survival of the fittest” and “do or die” invoking an image of a battle and Darwin’s theory. shadymathers.com talks about how this song is about he struggled with his drug abuse because "he wasn't ready to be a millionare", and that is a rehash of his old album MMLP which is what his new album is named after. It is a song that I would normally listen to before a sports game or driving fast in my car, but because of this sense of competition I put into the process I have been thinking about it constantly. It may seem hard to do, but for me it is easy. I feel as though I am a business trying to sell myself as a product. Just like the song was used as background music to help sell the new Call of Duty: Ghost, I would sell myself as a person willing to work. I have somewhat of an ability to talk to people of authority and interviews are usually what helps me get myself out there as a candidate. Conversations like that have always been, for the most part, easy for me. The song brings out the instinctual animal or id in me in a similar way that sports and this process has.

   Ironically, the worst part of this experience for me was trying to sell myself to coaches. It is an epic fail whenever I am presented with the opportunity. As an example, during my recent trip I met the soccer coach and had a discussion with him about soccer and hopefully playing. It was one of the most excruciating things I had to do. He questioned me ten times harder than any of the college admissions people. I felt like a suspect for a murder. This makes sense because he doesn’t have to deal with trying to convince people to join, because he has plenty of people for that spot. It left me in shock. My mom said my demeanor was that of a deer stuck in headlights. It gave me the sensations that I expressed earlier. I was turned from the predator to the prey. For whatever reason it is hard for me to talk about my abilities on a field. Maybe it is a subconscious hesitancy to playing. Maybe I am not ready for that kind of commitment. I have spent so much time on it maybe I am nervous about life after sports and what that will bring. It seems to have put me in a situation where I doubt myself and my motivations. After the interview I can’t help but question my capabilities.

   This world is survival of the fittest. It is a cutthroat society. I thought that I was ready for it, to brave into a new world but now I am sure that I am not. Fortunately I have a while to grow up before it is time to leave.

        Huey Lewis is a prophet.  He and his and his band Huey Lewis and the News is famous for their catchy songs that don’t contain a lot of substance.  That is the case with the song “I Want a New Drug.” In this song he sings about he needs a new drug that does not make him feel bad the next day. The song sounds incredibly superficial upon hearing it for the first time, but when you analyze it further it sounds like he is talking about today’s modern day drug, the Internet.
This sounds a little ridiculous. This is like saying Miley Cyrus or Katy Perry predicted the end of broadcast news. “I Want a New Drug” starts with him talking about how he needs a drug that won’t make his “eyes get red” or “One that won't hurt my head”. He then goes into how wants a drug that “One that makes me feel like I feel when I'm with you. When I'm alone with you.” He in this sentence talks about a drug that doesn’t give him symptoms an can make him feel how he is alone with a girl. The internet doesn’t have any symptoms and pornography is one of the most popular uses of it. Right now, during the Technology Age drug use is down especially, cocaine the drug of choice in the 80’s when this song came out. Is it possible that America has found a drug that can satisfy the Lewis is singing about? According to so researchers Internet Addiction affects the brain in the same way alcohol and drug addiction does. One CBS article claims it is similar to cocaine. This shows that the Internet can be incredibly addicting to the point that it is a drug.  To the newest generation it has created this drug that Huey craved. It has given him a way to feel like how he does when he is alone with you. 15% of searches on search engines today are pornographic content. So, in a way, it accomplished Lewis’s wish for a drug that accomplishes these goals.
Saying Huey Lewis is a prophet is a little brash, but he did in a way he voiced a public need that was fulfilled by the internet.  This catchy song was showing a real hole in the lives of people that was filled by the Internet.